The major question most face is, do I need to upgrade? The answer depends on what you are using your system for and what subsystems you are using. If you have a highly customized FreeBSD configuration, it will be far more important that you read through all of the release notes. If you’re considering migrating to FreeBSD 9.0 or 9.1 you might want to wait until 9.2 is released, especially if you’re using ZFS pools with feature flags (see below). Version 9.x does offer some major changes from 8.x including high performance SSH, ZFS v28, updated ATA/SATA drivers with AHCI support and the NFS system is upgraded to support NFSv4.  Version 9.2 could be available as early as December (unconfirmed) as for end of life on the current versions, 8.3 and 8.4 are extended (24 month security officer support) while 9.0 and 9.2 are slated to be normal (12 month). That also puts 9.1 and 9.3 at extended with 9.1 being supported until Dec. 31, 2014.

In FreeBSD 8.4-RELEASE there were a lot of bug fixes in the network interface support area as well as some new hardware support. Network protocols also had a major list of updates including some bug fixes to IPv6. FreeBSD 8.4-RELEASE also includes updates to major contributed software like OpenSSH, OpenSSL, and sendmail and the KDE desktop environment.

As security is always a major concern, here is a quick overview of what was fixed in FreeBSD 8.4-RELEASE based on previous security advisories. The oldest and most outstanding of these are the OpenSSL vulnerabilities that were fixed which dated back to May 2012 (SA-12:01.openssl and SA-13:03.openssl). Other security updates including changes to crypt(), named, bind, and input validation for the NFS server which could potentially have been exploited to allow arbitrary code to be run in kernel context.

In terms of the kernel itself, several bugs were fixed including those dealing with CPU affinity, VIMAGE and mmap. Other changes include some workarounds dealing with old versions of QEMU and Xen, and big changes to the FreeBSD sched_ule scheduler in terms of CPU selection in systems with symmetrical multithreading (or hyperthreading for Intel CPUs).

It you are considering migrating to FreeBSD 9.0 or 9.1 and are using the ZFS subsystem it’s important to note that FreeBSD 8.4-RELEASE can now support feature flags in ZFS pools, but the default version number will still be 28. FreeBSD 9.0 and 9.1 do not support these feature flags and so they cannot be used but a version 8.x system can be upgraded to version 9.0 or 9.1 without problem provided the ZFS pools are v28. If a ZFS pool is upgraded from v28 it would then prevent upgrade. However, FreeBSD 9.2 and later are slated to support ZFS pools with feature flags.

• New Intel GPU driver with GEM/KMS support
• netmap(4) fast userspace packet I/O framework
• ZFS improvements from illumos project
• CAM Target Layer, a disk and processor device emulation subsystem
• Optional new C++11 stack including LLVM libc++ and libcxxrt
• Jail devfs, nullfs, zfs mounting and configuration file support
• POSIX2008 extended locale support including compatibility with Darwin extensions
• oce(4) driver for Emulex OneConnect 10Gbit Ethernet card
• sfxge(4) driver for 10Gb Ethernet adapters based on Solarflare SFC9000 controller
• Xen Paravirtualized Backend Ethernet Driver (netback) improvement
• hpt27xx(4) driver for HighPoint RocketRAID 27xx-based SAS 6Gb/s HBA
• GEOM multipath class improvement
• GEOM raid class is enabled by default supporting software RAID by deprecated ataraid(8)
• kernel support for the AVX FPU extension
• Numerous improvements in IPv6 hardware offload support

Any new VPS or Dedicated Server can have 9.1-RELEASE installed on it.

We recommend that any current customers that wish to upgrade use freebsd-update unless you have compiled FreeBSD from source. Please follow the normal upgrade procedures recommended here: http://www.freebsd.org/releases/9.1R/installation.html

To celebrate the release, we are offering 20% off your first payment for any new order with any billing cycle. Be sure to use the coupon code 91RELEASE!

Get full control with your own dedicated server.  This includes IPMI with remote reboot and remote KVM so that you can completely reinstall your operating system whenever you’re in the mood!

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• Intel Atom Dual-core CPU
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• /29 IPv4 (5 usable IP addresses)
• /64 IPv6 (18,446,744,073,709,551,616 usable IP addresses)
• Your choice of OS (any FreeBSD, OpenBSD, Linux)
• IPMI remote control

Order now, enter promo code EOTW during checkout

Co-locating with RootBSD has many benefits, such as having direct gigabit connectivity to your VPS or dedicated servers with free bandwidth.  We’ll also provide free shipping of your server to our datacenter, and 1 hour of free remote hands service every month.  Unhappy with your existing provider?  Send us a copy of your invoice and we’ll meet or beat what you’re paying now.

For the month of December, we are offering huge discounts for single server co-location in our Raleigh, NC datacenter.  Take advantage of this special pricing while it lasts!

>> Co-location Special Pricing <<

RootBSD VPS instances are installed with a current version of FreeBSD and with SSH access but nothing else. In this tutorial, you will learn how to update the ports tree and install PHP, Apache, and MySQL (FAMP Stack) on your VPS.

Logging in as root is disabled so you should login using the provided SSH user name and password provided by RootBSD. Once you have successfully logged into your VPS you may simply “su” to root.

Before we begin to install any ports, it is recommended that you update the ports tree so that any port you intend to build is the most current version.

Upgrading Ports Tree Using Portsnap

Installing Apache 2.2.x

First, we are going to install Apache HTTP Server.

To run Apache web server from startup append the following to the “rc.conf” file.

Starting and Stopping Apache

Once Apache has been successfully installed you can open your VPS address in a web browser and you should see the following text “It works!”

Potential Issues

You may run into some issues when starting Apache for the first time. Two of the most common are hostname and accf_http issues.

Hostname issues:

If you start Apache and the server throws back the following error:

httpd: apr_sockaddr_info_get() failed for XXXX

httpd: Could not reliably determine the server’s fully qualified domain name, using 127.0.0.1 for ServerName

You need to set your hostname. This can be done by editing /etc/rc.conf:

hostname=”x.x.xxx” < – Your server’s fully qualified domain name (FQDN).

accf_http

You may also get an error that looks like:

[warn] (2)No such file or directory: Failed to enable the ‘httpready’ Accept Filter

This is especially common on FreeBSD systems. To solve the problem follow these steps:

Type the following at the CLI:

# kldload accf_http # echo ‘accf_http_load=”YES”’ >> /boot/loader.conf

Restart Apache. (/usr/local/etc/rc.d/apache22 restart)

Installing PHP 5.3.x

In order for PHP to parse correctly you must add a few lines to the Apache “httpd.conf” file.

# cd /usr/local/etc/apache22/  # ee httpd.conf

AddType application/x-httpd-php .php AddType application/x-httpd-php-source .phps

Figure 2. Adding lines to Apache “httpd.conf” file

Figure 3. Add index.php before or after index.html

Installing MySQL

It is strongly recommended to set a sysadmin (root) password for MySQL.

Additional Modules

Once you’ve installed the main components you may need to install some additional modules for everything to work well together. Three commonly used modules are:

/usr/ports/databases/php5-mysql

/usr/ports/www/php5-session

/usr/ports/graphics/php5-gd

For all of these just “cd” to the above directories and run (default options are fine):

# make install clean

Then restart Apache. (/usr/local/etc/rc.d/apache22 restart)

Finished

Once all three components are installed and configured you’re ready to start setting up a database driven site or application. To verify that everything is working correctly you can use a phpinfo test page.

Navigate to your web root (by default /usr/local/www/apache22/data), and enter the following:

# echo “<?php phpinfo(); ?>” > test.php

Now you should be able to open your VPS address in your browser and navigate to test.php (ex: 199.199.199.1/test.php). You should see a page showing your PHP version, as well as info on installed modules (including mysql).

Introduction of MaheshaBSD-2.0 – What’s New On The Lake Manasarovar?

MaheshaBSD-2.0, a FreeBSD Live CD (modular/education/presentation/rescue toolkit) based on FreeBSD 9.0, is introduced in this article. The Live CD was released in February 2012. The article will summarize the news in the new version of this distribution (for example, a possibility to use 4 keyboard layouts also with Devanagari, the author’s Xmodmap solution, and many other things). The name MaheshaBSD is derived from Mahesha, one of the names of Lord Shiva. The name was chosen because Lord Shiva is armed with the same weapon as FreeBSD – the trident (trishula in Sanskrit).

Brief introduction of the project

The full article about MaheshaBSD-2.0 was first published in the 2012 March issue of the BSD Magazine. You can see more details and pictures at the reference link.

To quickly recap what MaheshaBSD is, how it works and what it offers, the following points will put you into the correct light:

MaheshaBSD is a modular (and rescue/education/presentation) toolkit. MaheshaBSD’s purpose is to bring some useful system/recovery utilities to people, but on the BSD platform – like TestDisk (which will recover lost partitions), PhotoRec (which will undelete files; it can also undelete files on USB memory sticks), Clamav (antivirus software), immediate NTFS R/W access (with ntfs-3g), chntpw (for resetting the Windows XP/W2K passwords, a very practical utility), FTP server (which immediately works without need to configure anything), MPlayer (to watch films; DivX and many other codecs are supported), and many other things – for example, MaheshaBSD can be used for presentations (you can bring it anywhere with you and show thousands of pictures to people, or present videos while giving a lecture, or watch videos with friends), or easily let your documents speak their contents for you with the MaheshaBSD’s built-in speak (espeak) functionality (a very useful thing for blind people).

Linux emulation is activated. You may run Skype or any Linux software under condition that you also have the necessary libraries. For that reason, the static versions of Linux binaries are recommended.

The MaheshaBSD’s modularity feature, too, is very useful – you may place a tweaked mfsroot.gz file into the MaheshaBSD’s /boot directory. This means that you can prepare router/ftp server/www server and so on that will suit your particular needs.

MaheshaBSD is not for everyday use. It is a recovery toolkit that can be also used for presentations, etc., and it serves this purpose only for a couple of hours. Its FTP server (vsftpd) is your door to log into any computer running MaheshaBSD (a broken notebook, for example) and save (copy) your data. You may also delete defective software on your Windows NTFS partition (to mount it in the NTFS R/W mode, use ntfs-3g – it works immediately).

MaheshaBSD will help you be anonymous on the Internet (with tor and polipo [a proxy server]).

You may choose national keyboard layouts in the IceWM’s menu (German, Russian, Czech, Slovak); dead keys work too.

You may write documents in the Seamonkey’s Composer component (HTML editor). Click on the “Write documents” icon in IceWM. You can also download dictionaries and spellcheck your texts.

Sample use cases

1) Your notebook falls down on the floor and the screen gets broken. You are not a techie and you do not know how to get your hard disk out of your computer. With the built-in MaheshaBSD’s FTP server (vsftpd) you may log in to your computer via SSH and get to your files.

2) You may run the Clamav antivirus software from within the MaheshaBSD’s environment.

3) You may recover lost files/partitions (TestDisk, PhotoRec).

4) You are a Windows user and you need to reset your Windows password.

5) Many other possibilites…

Security

If you want to complain that running Skype in the MaheshaBSD’s /tmp directory is not a wise idea, I emphasize again that MaheshaBSD should be used only for a couple of hours (and under condition that all your hard disks and cellular phones fail, so there is really no need to complain about security) and mostly as a recovery toolkit. The above points, as you see, already express the essence of the MaheshaBSD’s objectives and there is really no need to worry about security. Nevertheless, if you want to complain, run Skype in your Linux /etc directory and not in the MaheshaBSD’s guest account (which is always available for you:).

What’s new in MaheshaBSD-2.0?

MaheshaBSD-2.0 is based on FreeBSD 9.0-RELEASE (i386), and it was released on February 7, 2012.

MaheshaBSD-2.0 is now Skype ready – that is, you do not need anything to install to use Skype (some Linux libraries were missing in MaheshaBSD-1.0). This Live CD contains instructions on how to put MaheshaBSD on a USB memory stick and you may carry it with you also with the Skype Linux static binaries.

Youtube videos now run without need to install Adobe Flash Plugin from the Internet (but without native Adobe Flash).

X Window may now be started with the startxaut (start X automatically) script, which will generate the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file (with the command Xorg -configure) and the X Window GUI environment will start automatically without any manual configuration.

MaheshaBSD-2.0 has a new logo (Manasa Devi). Manasa Devi, the Naga Goddess of the underground (Patala), is the daughter of Lord Shiva.

MaheshaBSD-2.0 has a special Xmodmap map with Devanagari and IAST support; it is in the More Progs IceWM’s menu. You may use 4 keyboard layouts with it (to switch between them, use CAPSLOCK).

Conclusion

The pull behind the MaheshaBSD project is to support and spread words about FreeBSD. Its Hindu touch is geared toward the same purpose, because there are still many people who have never heard of FreeBSD. If they search for some Hindu keywords, they may possibly find it and try it and convince their neighbors that FreeBSD is not only for the techies. In the future, MaheshaBSD will always keep its original contours, because a possibility to type wise ideas in Sanskrit or IAST transliteration of Sanskrit will make many people look out of their (Linux) Window(s).

Reference Links

Project home page (with download): http://www.freebsd.nfo.sk/maheshaeng.htm

RootBSD Hosting: http://www.rootbsd.net

BSDMag (with download): http://bsdmag.org/magazine/1795-nessus-exploitation-tools-and-payloads

Since I began using FreeBSD 4.x, I quickly learned of Webmin, a web-based server administration tool, which allows administrators to manage everything from: Mysql, Apache, Sendmail, system processes, networking and much more. One of the coolest features of Webmin is it’s modular structure. Modules can easily be downloaded and installed to fit your specific server needs. In this quick tutorial you will learn how to install and use Webmin.

[table id=1 /]

[table id=2 /]

[table id=3 /]

[table id=4 /]

[table id=5 /]

[table id=6 /]

[table id=7 /]

[table id=8 /]

Even though Webmin will not fully replace SSH or physical access to your server. Webmin will allow you as the admin to manage and perform the most common server tasks easily via a web browser. Happy Webmin-ing!

[table id=9 /]

Many providers who utilize Level3 Communications for transport services, both telephone and IP,  were also impacted as these transport services utilize the same converged backbone as the Level3 transit product.

The Level3 Communications master case number is 40976066.

The Level3 Communications official statements regarding the unscheduled network event are:

8/1/11 7:12:56 PM GMT The IP NOC reports that the network equipment self
restored, resolving the routing issue and restoring services at
approximately 17:55 GMT. The IP NOC states that they will continue to
work with Level 3 OPS Engineers and the equipment vendor to isolate the
root cause of the service interruption. The Level 3 TSC has confirmed
that all customer services have been restored and the IP NOC will
continue to monitor for stability.

8/1/11 6:29:26 PM GMT The IP NOC reports that a routing issue failure
between Dallas, TX and Los Angeles, CA is impacting IP services in
multiple markets. The IP NOC has engaged the equipment vendor, as well
as Level 3 OPS Engineers and continues to investigate to isolate the
issue at this time.

If you have anymore questions about this outage, please contact our support team at support@rootbsd.net.

CVSup is a highly efficient way of distributing files. It works similar to rsync, but was specially designed for use with CVS repositories.

Requirements:

• 5.4 GB disk space ( an additional 10-20% more free space is recommended)
• >= 2GB RAM
• A decent CPU as CVSup can be CPU intensive
• A fast disk subsystem (RAID highly recommended)
• Good network connection

Building your own CVSup mirror is made easy by the port net/cvsup-mirror.

# cd /usr/ports/net/cvsup-mirror

# make install clean

You will be prompted for a master site for you updates. Choose a mirror from the CVSup Sites list .

Follow the instructions  (Note: If you would also like to mirror the WWW data, this is a very easy way to do it.  Select ‘y’ when prompted):

I am going to ask you a few questions so that I can set up your
FreeBSD mirror configuration.  Every question has a [default]
answer.  To accept the default, just press ENTER.

At this point, I am just gathering information.  I will not touch
your system until you type “make install”.

Master site for your updates [cvsup-master.freebsd.org]? cvsup9.us.FreeBSD.org
How many hours between updates of your files [1]? [Enter]

Now you must decide which sets of files you wish to make available
from your mirror site.  You can choose any combination, and you
can put each set anywhere you want to on your disks.  Although each
set is optional, we strongly encourage every mirror site to carry
at least the main source repository.

Do you wish to mirror the main source repository [y]? [Enter]
Where would you like to put it [/home/ncvs]? [Enter]
Do you wish to mirror the installed World Wide Web data [y]? n
Do you wish to mirror the GNATS bug tracking database [y]? n
Do you wish to mirror the mailing list archive [y]? n

Now, a few questions so that I can set up your CVSup server properly.

For security reasons, both the CVSup client and server should run
under their own unique user and group IDs.  These IDs should have no
special access privileges.  Normally, the user:group “cvsupin:cvsupin”
is used for the client and “cvsup:cvsup” is used for the server, but
you can choose other names if you wish.  At “make install” time, I
will create the users and groups, if they don’t already exist.

Use unique user and group IDs for these.  Do not use “nobody”,
“nonroot”, or “nogroup”.

Unique unprivileged user ID for running the client [cvsupin]? [Enter]
Unique unprivileged group ID for running the client [cvsupin]? [Enter]
Unique unprivileged user ID for running the server [cvsup]? [Enter]
Unique unprivileged group ID for running the server [cvsup]? [Enter]

The CVSup server does its logging via syslog.  At “make install”
time, I will set up the logging for you, if necessary.  I will use
the “!program” feature of syslog to keep your CVSup log messages
separate from the messages of your other daemons.

Syslog facility for the server log [daemon]? [Enter]

You can control the load on your machine by limiting the number of
clients that the CVSup server will serve at once.  CVSup won’t load
your network especially heavily, but it is more CPU and disk
intensive than most other file server software.

Maximum simultaneous client connections [8]? 10

Later, it will prompt you again with more questions:

You need a group “cvsup”.
Would you like me to create it [y]? [Enter]

You need a user “cvsup”.
Would you like me to create it [y]? [Enter]

You need a group “cvsupin”.
Would you like me to create it [y]? [Enter]

You need a user “cvsupin”.
Would you like me to create it [y]? [Enter]

Would you like me to create cvsupin’s home directory (/home/cvsupin) [y]?

The port should now be installed and ready for configuration.

First, comment out the line added to /etc/crontab. You can adjust the time for the update to script to run if you desire:

# vi /etc/crontab

There should be a line that looks similar to this:

#6    *    *    *    *    root    /usr/local/etc/cvsup/update.sh

If you would like to further restrict access you can configure your cvsupd.access file:

# vi /usr/local/etc/cvsup/cvsupd.access

Below is what should be there originally:

-0.0.0.0/0      10      # Limit total connections
-0.0.0.0/0/32   1       # Allow only 1 connection from each host
+0.0.0.0/0              # If we reach this rule, we let the client in

Now you should be ready run your first update. This will take some time as it downloads the entire repository.

# /usr/local/etc/cvsup/update.sh

Once that is done, uncomment the line in /etc/crontab.

Add a line to /etc/rc.conf for cvsupd:

# vi /etc/rc.conf

cvsupd_enable=”YES”

Then start cvsupd:

# /usr/local/etc/rc.d/cvsupd start

Your CVSup mirror should now be working!

Other notes:

CVSup requires incoming connections on port 5999 so add a firewall rule if necessary.

If you encounter trouble, check /var/log/cvsup.log and /var/log/cvsupd.log .

– Rob Lampe

“Help! The website is down! The server is down! The Internet is broken! Help!!!” If you’ve ever been on the receiving end of this panicked cry for help, you might read this quote and identify with my feelings of frustration. I’ve gotten this phone call so many times, and while I know the website or web server might actually be “down” and the Internet connection might be “broken”, neither is probably the case. Generally, what’s happening is that the user is opening a web browser, and the web page they are trying to access is not responding for some reason. In my experience, it seems that the server is rarely, if ever, down, and even more rarely is the Internet connection failing. If you’ve been blessed with the job of handling such support requests, I’m sure you have some techniques in your tool belt that you use to run through your troubleshooting process. In this article I am going to speak about one of my most trusted and essential tools – the Unix shell account. If you’re looking for an introduction to Unix, this article isn’t the one. This article is more of ode to the shell account, one of the last vestiges of an era when computing wasn’t all buzzwords and marketing, and the power of a computer wasn’t hidden beneath a bedazzled interface.

Even in 2011, a time when computers are in our pockets that can act at the swipe of a finger or simple words spoken from our lips, the Unix shell, with its antiquated command line interface and cryptic commands, is still one of the most reliable and essential tools to aid in troubleshooting. How could this be? How could access to a 40 year old operating system account be relevant in this era? It’s quite simple actually, and while it may seem self deprecating, it all boils down to this: sometimes the best computer to use for testing and troubleshooting is a computer that is not your own. In fact, I’ve learned that it’s better if the computer isn’t even on your network. Why not your computer on your network? Because there’s a chance that whatever is happening is your fault to begin with, and it’s nice to know there’s a computer that there’s essentially no way you could have messed up!

It might be hard to face this fact, but if you, like me, are a “tech / admin / programmer / the one people call when things need fixing”, then you’ve probably had a hand in the installation and configuration of your own machine and possibly even the network at your office. You’re smart – no, brilliant! You think on your feet, outside the box. You plan ahead. You’re clever. You multi-task. The truth is that all of these attributes you possess can be liabilities, just as much as they can be qualities. Take for example the following anecdote, which may have happened to me, or to you:

Joe is a support tech. He get’s a ring on the phone from Sara – “Hey, so I opened my web browser and nothing’s happening.” Having heard this a million times, Joe replies, “What do you mean nothing’s happening? What page are you trying to get to?” Joe knows the Internet isn’t down, he’s been reading reddit all morning, or rather, working diligently all morning… So he opens a browser and tries to access the URL the caller can’t reach, “www.youremployer.com.” This can generally go a couple of ways at this point: If Joe can access the site, Sara is probably having some kind of issue local to her machine, but in this case, Joe can’t access the site either. So what now? Joe calls another staff person, the tech-savvy receptionist, Sherine. It turns out that Sherine can’t access the site either. Interesting. At this point there are 3 known machines that can’t access the site. This could be really bad. Is the server down? Joe’s starting to feel a sense of urgency here (He never panics.). What Joe doesn’t know yet is that the server is up, but there’s a local DNS problem. A problem he caused, by implementing a clever fix while “cleaning up the DNS server.” Luckily for Joe, he has a shell account, so the next step he takes is to log in to his remote shell, fire up Lynx, and access www.youremployer.com. The site is up, so it must be a local network issue. It only takes Joe a few minutes to figure out what’s really going on, because his shell not only has a web browser, but has DNS lookup utilities, and entire set of Unix power tools that he could wield. A bit of dig and nslookup and it’s revealed that the local DNS server on his network had a typo in the new www alias that he added. 5 minute fix.

This could have been much worse. Joe’s friend, Mark doesn’t have a shell account. A few weeks ago, he faced a situation like this and the only way to test from outside was to call his buddy Larry and see if he could open a browser and try it from his office. These days, Larry is so busy that he probably won’t even be able to pick up his phone. It might seem like a fringe case, but believe me, it’s not uncommon that the issues that arise day to day on your network are caused by the same techs who are charged with resolving them. Mark could be at it for hours before finding the problem, because Mark assumes that everything on his office desktop and office network are guaranteed to be in perfect working order. Mark doesn’t see the connection between the clever hack he implemented on Tuesday morning last week, and the “that’s weird” problem he’s facing on this sunny Friday afternoon (And if he doesn’t solve it soon, means missing happy hour!). These are the times when having a shell account are so handy. The techs at my office all have a hand in our network environment and server configuration. It’s our house, and we all pitch in to take care of it. None of us are ever doing one thing at a time (Who can get away with that luxury?) and mistakes happen. Often, the results of these mistakes don’t surface for some time after they’re made, which makes finding the cause even harder. If you have a trusted machine on a trusted network that you can rely on, it makes life so much easier.

Today, there’s a lot of talk about “the cloud.” What is the cloud? We’re familiar with the cloud, because there’s usually a cloud on our network diagrams – it’s the Internet. What’s so good about the cloud? Why would someone want to, for example, keep their music collection on some cloud service, instead of having it all on their local machine? It’s not hard to see why – there’s just less responsibility involved in keeping it working. We can generally trust that the folks at Amazon aren’t going to accidentally erase the hard drive, or kick the plug out of a switch, or select shutdown instead of restart when trying to reboot the server remotely. The odds are that the “server” will be up, and since you can’t get your brilliant hands on that server, there’s little you (or your brilliant colleagues) could do to ruin it. So we trust our email to the cloud, our documents to the cloud, our photos and music to the cloud. Some of the younger generation doesn’t realize that before the cloud was something spoken about in an IBM television commercial, and before most of us could afford a server of our own, one could access a powerful server, on a trusted network, for little or no cost. Shell accounts are the original cloud computing.

If you don’t have a shell account, you need one. There’s really no debating this. There’s no excuse for not having at least one. A great place to start is the Super Dimension Fortress, which you can access at sdf.org. They have been offering low-cost and free shells for over 20 years – it’s what they do. Their mission, “…is to provide remotely accessible computing facilities for the advancement of public education, cultural enrichment, scientific research and recreation.” I use my SDF shell for troubleshooting, testing scripts, storing files, tunneling ssh connections, accessing IRC support channels, and just about anything else. Sure most of the time I could use my own computer, but as you may know by now – sometimes my computer is broken, because I broke it.

I’ve found that while SDF is great (and I can’t expound on that enough), there are times when I need to have root access. Sometimes I need to test some software SDF doesn’t have installed, or I need to access some privileged ports (ports numbered lower than 1024.) Here is where services from a place like RootBSD are terrific. From RootBSD you can get a virtual private server that runs Unix (even NetBSD or OpenBSD, which is not easy to find anywhere else), and you can do whatever you want with it. I recommend having a Unix VPS around, because they are indispensable for serious testing and troubleshooting. Obviously, I still recommend having a shell account somewhere else to test from, and by now I hope you’ll agree that it’s sensible. Let’s just hope the Internet isn’t really broken…

– Michael Hernandez